This invention concerns improvements to presses for the pressing of scrap in skips used to charge furnaces for steelworks.
The invention concerns also the presses which employ such improvements for the pressing of scrap in skips.
The invention refers also to a method to move skips below the presses.
At the present time the skips employed to charge scrap into furnaces for steelworks are moved by means of appropriate supports having legs and a substantially square floor plan or another shape.
Such supports with legs make possible the use of vehicles which comprise a raisable platform and, being introduced below the supports themselves, lift the supports and convey them wherever required.
The pressing of scrap in skips to improve the filling of the latter and to reduce the time employed in charging the furnace is a common practice nowadays.
Such pressing is carried out with appropriate presses, the skips being rested on suitable cradles which accommodate and support them.
At the present time the skips are rested on their own supports with legs and are then conveyed to the press zone, where a crane lifts them from their support and places them on a cradle.
The cradle is then moved under the press for the pressing operation and, when the pressing has been performed, is brought back to the neighbourhood of the support with legs, onto which the skip is reloaded.
This known system requires a high capacity crane with heavy investment costs and high movement and running costs. It also entails considerable space and downtimes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,470,580 discloses a press for scrap in which the die consists of two elements of different diameters, the outer element being fitted when required.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,416,436 discloses a press for scrap which cooperates with a skip having a vertically movable bottom to discharge the scrap when pressed.
EP Patent No. 0.035.568 discloses a press for briquettes in which the press mould can be moved on an appropriate truck and can be positioned vertically by plungers included in the structure of the press so as to discharge the briquettes.
The present applicant has therefore designed and embodied the invention according to this application.